We’re Back in Our Parish Church!

This was an unusually good Sunday morning for me.

Photo by Cathy Behrens, used with permission. Our Lady of the Angels parish, Parishes on the Prairie; Sauk Centre, Minnesota.
Photo by Cathy Behrens, used with permission.

Our part of Sauk Centre has been getting new paving, sidewalks, and utilities. Or, rather, the old ones are being replaced.

The folks doing it have been working in stages, so no one address had their street access cut off for more than a few days to a week or so. Except for Our Lady of the Angels, the parish church for this household.

When the street and sidewalk on the church’s north side was torn up, we’d been told that the job would be done and we could use the church again by the end of summer.

So we shifted our schedules around — and so did St. Paul’s, the other parish in town. There’s a story behind a town this size having two parishes, but that’ll wait for another day.

I like St. Paul’s just fine, but by the end of summer was looking forward to getting back into “our” church.

Then, around mid-September, we learned that the concrete in the new Our Lady of the Angels sidewalk had to be re-poured. It had failed a stress test, and the slope between the doors and the street to the east exceeded insurance limits.

No worries, though. We’d been told that the concrete would get replaced. Perhaps some time next year. The contractor, apparently, was booked solid and wasn’t at all sure when we could be squeezed in.

The local priest talked with city authorities, indicating that this was not acceptable. For the first time in years, decades, I sent an email saying basically the same thing. My guess is that I wasn’t the only one indicating that, no kidding, we really do use that building.

Time passed.

This morning, on my way to St. Paul’s, I noticed cars parked outside Our Lady of the Angels, and lights on inside. Turning the corner, I saw through an entry-area window that someone was INSIDE the church.

As I said, this was an unusually good Sunday morning for me. We can start using our parish church again.

Somehow, part of the sidewalk we use was re-poured. And, I hope, this time passed tests.

The too-steep incline issue has been solved by putting stair-steps where the slope was.

What looks like a wooden railing has been installed, too. I haven’t gotten close enough to verify that the wood-colored, rather rectilinear, railings actually are wood. Wood isn’t the structural material I’d choose for railings in this climate: but the things are there, and we can use them, so I’m a happy camper.

This is very good news: and a far better outcome than I’d expected.

Now, instead of related stuff, I’ve picked links to stuff that isn’t necessarily related:


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About Brian H. Gill

I was born in 1951. I'm a husband, father and grandfather. One of the kids graduated from college in December, 2008, and is helping her husband run businesses and raise my granddaughter; another is a cartoonist and artist; #3 daughter is a writer; my son is developing a digital game with #3 and #1 daughters. I'm also a writer and artist.
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